1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and also to a method for assembling a lamp unit, a light guide plate and a liquid crystal display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays are widely spread as image display devices for personal computers and various other monitors. Liquid crystal displays of the kind generally comprise a back light, a planar light source for illumination, on a rear surface of a liquid crystal display panel to apply light to a liquid crystal surface with a predetermined spread in a fashion providing a uniform brightness.
Such a backlight uses a fluorescent lamp with a hot or cool cathode as a light source. The backlight conventionally uses two methods, that is a direct-light type and a side light type (an edge light type). The direct-light type has the fluorescent lamp placed immediately below the liquid crystal display. On the other hand, the side light type has the fluorescent lamp installed on two sides or one side of a light guide plate made of a transparent resin so that light incident on the light guide plate is directed toward a liquid crystal display panel surface by a reflection section on a rear surface of the light guide plate. The light is then diffused into a uniform planar light.
The side light type back light may be thinner that the direct-light type and is thus suitable for display devices for portable equipment such as notebook computers.
Under growing demand for thinner and less expensive display devices, a need remains for a liquid crystal display that is easy to assemble and maintain.
As described in JP-A 6-51905, it is the conventional practice to use a backlight unit or module, which has been pre-assembled, is used in fabricating a liquid crystal display. If a lamp used in such backlight unit fails to illuminate, it is therefore the conventional practice to replace the backlight unit with a new one, requiring cost one user and skilled labor.